


Sympathy For The Devil

by thunderstormsablaze



Category: All Elite Wrestling
Genre: A bit of a crack fic, Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen, Angst, Blood, Emotional Manipulation, Fluff, Lots of Murder, M/M, Torture, and full of incorrect information, cheating?, lots of blood, lying, probably out of character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-13 12:21:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29901024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thunderstormsablaze/pseuds/thunderstormsablaze
Summary: No one knows where they came from, just that they showed up one day, leaving a string of bodies behind while chasing a murderous high. Holding lives so delicately in their hands, gleefully throwing them away.They shouldn't fit together this well, but opposites always did attract. Working together to rescue the lives thrown away before they hit the ground and burn out.
Relationships: Kenny Omega/"Hangman" Adam Page, Nick Jackson/Kenny Omega
Kudos: 10





	1. Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, so I don't know if you can get a hitman on Craigslist, but it's the first place that came to mind so I went with it.

Matt never thought it would come to this. Yet here he is, opening the family computer and going to Craigslist. He stares at the openings, heart in his stomach. He shouldn't be here, he doesn't know why he's here. He's just nineteen, shouldn't be worrying about helping his family get enough money to survive. But his other siblings aren't old enough, heck Nick's barely fifteen, so it's up to him to help out. 

None of them sound good, he doesn't have the skills for most of the specialized labor, and he's not desperate enough to do… other things. Until one stands out to him: an anonymous person needs a man named Adam Cole taken out. That doesn't sound too bad, he can go on a date with another guy. Even if he's not that attractive it's okay, it's better than anything else he can find. And is going to make him… holy crap. Ten thousand dollars. That's enough to pay most of their debts and have enough to survive. The guy must really be desperate to get a date.

He writes back he'll take it, then further instructions come in. It starts out fairly normal, take him to a specified area, alright maybe he's just nervous. Agoraphobia is a thing, maybe this Adam Cole guy has it. Matt keeps reading, then stops suddenly. He clicks back to the ad and stares in shock. On the notes it says "hide the body". And the it hits him, he agreed to murder a guy. 

"Take out" meant murder, not a date. Suddenly the price tag makes sense, no one would pay that much for a date, not even someone desperate. Killing someone, on the other hand, sure, that's a valid price. His breath quickens, the words spinning in his vision as he grips the table tightly. He can't do this, can't end a man's life, not even for that much money. Right? 

Well, they need the money. And there wouldn't be a hit out on this guy if he didn't deserve it… He memorizes the information and closes the window, wiping the browser history not a moment too soon before Nick wanders in, oblivious to what his older brother was just doing. Matts heart quickens, he doesn't want Nick to get involved in this. It's bad enough he's in it, but he can't, won't tarnish Nick's innocence. He still has a few years left, and Matt's going to do his best to make sure he stays innocent as long as possible.

The next night Matt sneaks out, stealing his mom's car and driving it to the location specified by the anonymous hirer. His stomach churning, he shakes with nerves and fidgets with the revolver tucked away in his pocket. He knocks on the door of the house and smiles weakly when another man opens the door, the face matching with the one shown to him in the notes. This must be Adam Cole.

Adam smiles and lets him inside, Matt doesn't know what he was told for why he's coming over, and he doesn't want to know. The less he knows about this other person the better. He tells the person- no. He can't keep thinking of him as a person. He tells the _target_ to come with him outside, taking him to the location specified in his instructions. When they finally get there, he pulls out the gun and fires, closing his eyes as he pulls the trigger.

The wet thud of a bullet through a person fills his ears and he immediately turns and vomits, heaving next to the corpse of Adam Cole. He killed someone, he's a murderer. Matt glances over at the body and his stomach churns, forcing his gaze away. He sits on the ground, pulling his knees to his chest and shaking, rocking back and forth. That continues for a while until he pulls himself together, wiping his tears away and slowly standing up. 

Mechanically, he walks to the body and checks to make sure it's dead, then follows the instructions to dispose of it. On autopilot- he walks back to his car, driving home. There's bloodstains on his jacket, but it's late and everyone's asleep, he can wash it in the basement with no one the wiser. 

But when he climbs into his window he stops, Nick is sitting on his bed, waiting for him to come home. They lock eyes and Matt scrambles back through the window until Nick stops him, running over and looking at the blood with wide eyes. He pulls Matt in the window and frantically looks him over for injuries until Matt takes his hands, shaking his head and taking off the jacket, showing him he isn't hurt.

"Matt what happened?" Nick whispers harshly, glaring at the jacket and back at his brother. Matt steers him to the bed and sits down next to him, looking at him sadly while trying to figure out what to say. What lies to fabricate to not tip him off to what he did.

"It's nothing Nick, it's not even human blood. I saw a bleeding cat and went to help it, but it ran away from me before I could do anything for it." Matt replies, tossing the jacket into the corner of the room. Thankful that his brother never noticed the gun tucked in it.

Nick looks suspicious but nods, yawning loud, too tired to keep fighting it. Matt sighs quietly and lets him lay down on his bed, knowing he won't be able to sleep the rest of the night. Once Nick falls asleep, Matt takes his jacket and washes it in the basement sink, getting out all the blood from it. Afterwards, he sits on the couch, putting his head in his hands and just thinking about what he did.

The next morning he acts normal. Going through the motions, as if he didn't kill someone. Silently, he transfers most of the money he got from the Craigslist ad to his parents bank accounts. He doesn't know exactly what he'll tell them about where he got it, but hopefully they don't notice what happened. 

That's the end of it, he swears. No more killing, he's not going to be some hitman, even though it pays well he can't kill anyone else. The sight of the dead body haunts his dreams, barely able to sleep, he won't do it anymore. Even when another email comes into his inbox, telling him another name to take out, he closes out of it. Until he sees how much their bills are, and checks Craigslist again to see if there are any better jobs.

With a heavy heart, he reopens the email and writes back he'll take it. He hates it, he can't kill someone else, it's not right. But it's the only way he can make enough money to help out. And a small part of him thinks he already killed someone, what difference does it make if it's one or two people. Right? It can't be that much worse. 

He sneaks out again that night, following the specified instructions to where the guy paying him wanted the hit to take place. This time there aren't any questions flying through his head, he knows what he needs to do and how to do it. There's no need to know anything else besides what's necessary to get the job done. That way he can't get too attached.

The next kill goes more smoothly, and Matt hates to say it, but he may be enjoying this. He's not bad at it, young and innocent enough that he doesn't look threatening, and to anyone who sees him and may know him he's just a good Christian boy. No murder there whatsoever. And his parents sleep like rocks, so he has a very low risk of getting caught. Besides, it's exhilarating having this much control. He's always been the older brother, forced to take care of his younger siblings, never with much of a life of his own. Now, he can have some control again.

Two and a half years pass by quickly, Matt taking another job once every two weeks or so, and growing a reputation for himself. He's careful to not attract too much attention, taking low profile hits for the most part, and traveling all over to kill people so no one traces it back to him. It was hard, hiding so much from his family, especially Nick, but he managed. Always being careful with everything took a toll on him, but it was worth it to see the stress of his parents lift just a bit more every month. 

Until one night, a small shadow goes unnoticed by Matt, someone sneaking into the car as he drives away for his next job. Matt remains oblivious as he goes through the motions of the next hit, only snapping out of it as he hears a sharp gasp come from behind him. He whirls around, pointing his gun at the intruder until he sees it's his younger brother. He sighs and lowers the gun, staring at his horrified expression with a blank face.

Nick runs over and stares down at the body, frantically looking between Matt and the stranger, unable to believe what he just saw. He pinches himself, trying to wake himself up from the nightmare that his brother's a killer. But he remembers the blood on his hoodie one night, and his face drains of color. He knows that blood wasn't from a cat, it was from a human. 

"How could you do this Matt! What's wrong with you! This isn't normal, you could get arrested for this! And you just killed a man without hesitation- what's going on here." Nick rambles until Matt covers his mouth with his hand, getting it licked in return but not removing it from his mouth. The younger glaring daggers at him.

Matt's stomach sinks, this isn't how he wanted Nick to see what he does for a living. He whispers into his ear, "I promise, I'll explain everything in the car on the way home. But I have to finish up here, make sure we aren't caught, okay? Just… be quiet. If you want you can go back to the car and pretend like this was all a bad dream." 

Nick slowly nods and the hand is removed from his mouth, not going back to the car, waiting to see what happens. Carefully, Matt pulls on gloves and drags the body somewhere secluded, then retrieves the bullet and marks up the corpse to make it that much more difficult to identify the cause of death. After one last check of the scene, he saunters back to Nick and takes him to the car, climbing in the front as he takes off the gloves, lighting them on fire and tossing them onto the concrete where they can safely burn.

"I didn't mean to do this, honest. I saw a thing on Craigslist saying to take someone out, and I thought it was a date. But it meant murder, and well, ten thousand is ten thousand. I was so disgusted at first, unable to sleep or… function really. But it got easier with time, and it was worth it for the money." Matt explains, putting the car in drive and starting back to their house.

"So… you killed someone the night I saw your hoodie stained with red." Nick states, not wanting to believe it but knowing it had to be true. The answering silence enough to confirm it, and he shakes his head. "How… just…." he falls silent, not sure what to say. His loving older brother is a murderer, a hitman of all things. 

Matt nods silently, letting his brother process it for himself. He knows Nick will likely have questions eventually, but for now the shock is setting in. It's how he felt the first time; all he can hope for is Nick doesn't turn him in. And that he doesn't follow this path, Matt can't stand the thought of his younger brother having to take this path for himself too. 

The awkward silence seeps through the car, neither having anything to say. Letting the shitty music from a beat up radio play as they await time for themselves to sort this out. Until they get near home and Nick opens his mouth, "so… are… are you going to do this again?" 

The million dollar question, isn't it. Will Matt be able to do this again, knowing Nick knows what he does every night. Can he handle that on his conscience. Well, it's not really much of a debate. He knows full well he's going to keep doing it. Other jobs he might be able to get don't pay as well, and the rush of seeing someone die is more than he's willing to give up. 

"It's a job." He simply replies as he gets out of the car, "it pays well and I'm capable of doing it." He walks inside, sneaking past his other brothers room and going up to his own, Nick trailing behind him. Matt turns at the entrance to his room, "what, you going to have nightmares over it?" 

Nick blushes faintly and shakes his head, "no…" he mumbles and flees back to his own room, closing the door and throwing himself onto the bed. Unsure of what to make of this, his older brother is a hitman. He supposes there's no good reaction to this, but he knows he can't turn him in. No matter how… wrong it is he's still Matt, and he can't betray Matt like that. 

Besides, a small part of him enjoyed it. Once he got over the shock that was seeing his brother murder someone, he couldn't deny there was a quiet little voice in the back of his mind that purred when he saw the life drain from the mans eyes, the slow pooling of blood under him. His stomach churns, he doesn't want to think of this anymore. But every time he closes his eyes all he can see is the corpse. 

Ten days pass full of strained silences and awkward passings between Matt and Nick before Matt gets another job. He immediately writes back he'll take it before he starts planning for the night. This time he can't afford to have someone tag along with him, he has to lure the woman from a club, and it's much easier to do that alone. He's not self conscious, he knows he can charm someone enough to get them to leave with him. But the circumstances have to be right.

So he slips out in the middle of the night, or at least tries to before he sees Nick waiting by the car for him, raising an eyebrow as he sees his older brother emerge from the house. Matt sighs internally, not in the mood for this, he has to get to the club soon to make sure his chances of getting her are the best. Sure, if he misses her there it's not the end of the world, but it's the easiest and most low risk way of making her disappear. 

"Nick… go back inside." Matt mumbles as he gets closer, met with a shake of the head. "It's not an option this time Nick, I'm not letting you come along with me. You're not even old enough to go to a club, I have to go to one tonight."

Nick rolls his eyes, "come on Matt, it's not like I don't have a fake I.D.-" a splutter of protest from the older before Nick continues, "besides I'm not asking. I'm coming along with you. I… I have to see another kill Matt, please. If you don't let me come I'll just steal dad's car and follow you, at least this way you can keep an eye on me. Please Matt." He looks at him with pleading eyes and Matt groans.

"Fine! But if they catch your fake I'm not helping you." He grumbles and gets in the driver's seat, unable to say no to Nick if he's this adamant about going. "I'm not letting you watch the kill, it's bad enough you saw one. You're too young for this sort of thing Nick, growing up too fast as it is. I can't let you grow up any faster."

"Shut the heck up Matt, you weren't much older than me when you started this. And I'm not a kid anymore, I can handle myself. I… I don't know. Something about it called to me, like it's what I'm meant to do. It felt right, I know it shouldn't and I know it's a bad thing, but I have to see if it's a fluke or not. If I finally found my place in life or not."

Matt sighs and stays silent as the car eats miles before nodding, "fine. I went through this… questioning period before and will do my best to help you. Okay? Just… don't do this without me, alright? I got lucky my first few times, I made a lot of mistakes and somehow wasn't caught. I can't stand the thought of you being caught because of some slight error."

Nick nods and grins, fighting the urge to reach across the seat and hug Matt so he doesn't cause them to crash. "Thank you so much Matt, you won't regret this, I swear." Matt sighs, knowing he's already regretting this, before explaining the instructions he was given to Nick so he knows what to do. Many questions later, they finally arrive at the club.

In the parking lot, Matt hands Nick his spare gun and a knife, telling him to only use them in emergencies and to leave the final kill to him. Nick nods eagerly and stares at him with wide eyes, tucking the weapons into the hiding places told to him and gets out of the car, demeanor shifting into something older. 

Matt's shocked, he never thought Nick would be this good at acting. But he goes along with it, and they get into the club with no trouble. Music blasting, lights flashing, many sweaty bodies pressed against each other. Nick clings to Matt's arm, looking around nervously as he finally sees what he got himself into, overwhelmed by the sensory input. 

Matt wraps an arm around him protectively and steers them to a spot on the outside where they can observe the entire club, keeping an eye out for the target while being away from a majority of the people. Eventually Nick gets used to it, adjusting to the new scene but still clinging to Matt. He can't lose him in this mess, even while being semi-used to it he knows if he's left alone he'll panic. 

Eventually Nick spots the woman and subtly points to her, earning a small grin from Matt and a pat on his shoulder. They walk up to her and Matt immediately starts flirting, ordering her a drink and smiling at her. She glances between the two of them before focusing on Matt, leaving Nick to watch for any bouncers or other people whose eyes may linger on Matt and their target for too long, notice someone talking to her enough to accurately describe him. 

Soon Matt has her wrapped around his finger and he offers her his arm, taking her back to the car and whispering in her ear as they leave. Full of meaningless nothings, but it obscures his face enough no one would be able to see who it is on the way out. Nick waits an agonizing thirty seconds until a large group of people leave, slipping in with them long enough to get out of range of the cameras before walking away to the predetermined spot, seeing the two of them in it.

Nick smirks for a moment before he wipes his face of any emotion, sneaking up beside them and tapping Matt's shoulder to alert him of his presence. Matt keeps up the act with the woman for a few more moments before he slides the knife from his pocket, slashing through her throat and stepping aside, dragging Nick with him so they don't get any blood on themselves. 

The crimson wave from her neck, Nick's hooked instantly. A grin slides across his lips as he watches the life leave her eyes, glancing over at Matt who has the same look on his face. They share a glance and burst out laughing, both on a high only killing can give them. After all they're good Christian boys, can't get high on any drug but adrenaline. 

They lean on each other for a few moments before letting reality kick in and working in tandem to dispose of the body. Matt looks over at Nick who has a self-satisfied look about him, and thinks he needs to put a stop to this before it gets any worse. But he knows the high and can't drag his brother away from it, besides they make a great team. It's then he knows, they're going to stick together, both in too deep to get out of it even if they wanted to.

The two of them take more and more hits for increasingly larger sums of money, eventually moving out to travel the country so they can broaden their horizons. Most are normal, kill someone who betrayed someone, someone who had too much debt, someone who did someone wrong. As the bodies pile up their care slips, all the bodies just a sum of cash to propel themselves. The names and faces long gone from their memories, just the thrill of playing death itself.


	2. Guardian Angels and Cowboys

As a child, Kenny was always fascinated by death. How fragile life was, how easy it was to snatch it away from someone yet how hard it was to keep thriving. Maybe that's why it wasn't a surprise when he became an FBI agent after long years of hard work and training. Sure, it's strange for a Canadian to join the FBI, but it was his childhood dream. And he's not going to let five year old Kenny down now that he's here, he's going to protect fragile lives and he's going to do it well.

He gets partnered with a redneck cowboy, someone named Adam Page who he didn't like at first. He'll admit it, he judged him too quickly. Thought he was just there for the power trip and bragging rights of being an agent. But after their first case together, solving a kidnapping of a small boy, he saw just how wrong he was. This Adam guy genuinely wanted to help people and had a heart of gold, and Kenny admired that. 

They go out to dinner that night, a feeling of accomplishment amongst them, nothing better than knowing they cheated death out of another soul for his collection. Kenny smiles across at Adam, extremely glad he was wrong about judging the cowboys character. He genuinely wants to be with him now, they work well as a team, strengths where the other has weaknesses, and even though they've only been together for one case Kenny can't imagine being with anyone else.

Returning to the building with their heads high, knowing they made a difference in someone's life is nothing they can replace. Kenny wants to keep feeling that, chasing the high of being able to say he reunited families. And that no matter how bad things get, he'll be there to make a difference and be able to say he did his best to succeed.

Of course, not every case ends with a happily ever after. The next one him and Adam get sent out on, a serial killer in a small town, while they're there two more bodies show up. It takes longer than it should have, if they were able to get more information out of the townspeople maybe the extra bodies could have been prevented. But what matters is they caught the guy, shot him before he could add another to his growing body count. And that has to be enough.

Right? At least that's what Kenny tells himself as he stumbles back to the train with Adam. fighting back tears from when they had to tell parents their children were dead. Because of his failures. That's the first time he seeks comfort in Adams arms, needing something solid to remind him he's alive, hold him together and stop him from falling apart. In the train back to the airport, he crawls into Adams' lap and cries.

Adam doesn't know what to do, he suddenly has a lap full of crying Canadian to deal with. He was never great at comforting people, always left that sort of thing to Kenny for a reason. It's one of the areas they differ, Kenny can handle people, Adam's better at looking at data and finding patterns. But right now no pattern finding can help, he has to be the solid rock for Kenny. So he hesitantly wraps his arms around him, just letting him cry until they get back to the airport.

Kenny blushes and pulls himself together, a muttered apology as he slowly extracts himself from the cowboys arms. He feels bad, knows the other isn't exactly ready to deal with it, but a squeeze to his shoulder and arm wrapped around him after they stand is all he needs to melt into his side again. Kenny knows he needs to stop getting so attached, but he can't help it. It's in his nature. 

Their next case pushes him to his limit. It's another serial killer case, but this one is so careful, never makes mistakes. The killer slips into homes and past intricate security systems, then tortures and kills the family before leaving a note on the blood stained bed, always crisp and a pristine white. Reading "do better next time". 

The first time they see it, Kenny shuts down. The killer is right, he has to do better, should have done better. He wasn't fast enough to stop the carnegie, save the family. What use is he anymore, he can't stop one person. It makes him question all his skills, it's so funny how four simple words can torment him. Haunt his dreams so much.

Adam gets angry. He has to hold himself back from punching the wall, because the nerve to taunt them is so high. He can't wait to get the killer arrested, punch them in the face for what they did. But he holds himself together for now, one glance at Kenny lets him know where he's most needed at the moment. So he pulls the ramen haired man into his arms and lets him cry, mourn the people they weren't able to save.

It takes a few minutes until Kenny pulls himself back together but he manages it, avoiding looking at the note any longer. He gathers as much as he can from the crime scene before letting Adam do his thing, feeling more useless than ever. This time there's no one to interrogate, the part he usually takes over. It's only data, and he's not good at that, always misses something.

It hurts sitting at the police station with nothing to do, looking over other cases instead that need some consultations. But it doesn't change that he's not doing anything to help the case at hand. Occasionally, he gets up and fetches something for Adam, but for the most part stays quiet and out of his way. Even late into the night, he watches Adam work, tucked away in a corner with only his thoughts. 

There's nothing. Adam growls and runs his hand through his hair, but the data is so jumbled up nothing clear can be made from it. At least for what's available at the moment. It's the worst part of his job, the next part. He can't do anything until he gets more information. Which means another family brutally murdered. He punches the table, startling the few people around except for Kenny who's used to it by now. 

Kenny looks up at Adam sadly who glares back, eyes softening a little when he sees the blond. He knows it's not Kenny's fault, or his own, but he wishes there was more he could do other than wait. Kenny offers his hand which the cowboy takes, walking tiredly back to their hotel and up to their room. Adam takes a shower while he hears lots of thudding going on in the main room, emerging to a triumphant Kenny who shoved the beds together.

Adam laughs quietly, the first time since landing, and Kenny smiles back at him. Kenny pulls him towards the big bed and lays down with him, wrapping his arms around him and laying close, just comforting him. Adam smiles and relaxes into his arms, resting his head against his chest and letting his eyes close, falling into sleep.

The next morning they get a call, another family was murdered. They nod and pull on their clothes and walls, trying to distance the tenderness of the last night with the harshness of the case. Arriving at this crime scene, it's eerily similar to the one before. Awash with blood and a pristine note on top of the bed with the same four words. 

This time they're more prepared for it though, and it doesn't affect them as badly. They start working, mechanical as ever, collecting data and facts about the case. Trying to distance themselves from the killings and taunts, treat it like a normal case where they could focus on the facts. It's harder than they thought it would be, not letting the words get to them, but they do their best with it.

Adam and Kenny return to the police station armed with new facts and a few potential suspects. Finally, Kenny has something to do, something he can be useful with. He takes the first suspect into the interrogation room, going through the list of questions he has and observing their reactions and answers to them. Storing all their movements in his head to analyze later, though he knows it's all on tape anyway.

Meanwhile, Adam sets up his board and adds more to it, filling in some of the many gaps in evidence from earlier and trying to make sense of it all. There's nothing he would like more than to pour himself a whiskey and forget the crime scene, but he has to be fully functional for looking at all the evidence. 

There's more he can connect this time, start piecing together things, but it's still not enough. Not enough to narrow down the suspect list, not enough to provide indisputable evidence if, when it went to court. He runs his hand through his hair, fighting the urge to yank it out. It's frustrating beyond words how much he can't do yet, not without more evidence. And evidence means another family slaughtered because he can't do his job.

A few hours later Kenny finally emerges from the last interrogation room, worn out as ever, brain absolutely fried from staring at people and watching their tells for so long. He stumbles over to Adam and leans against him, burying his head in his shoulder and closing his eyes, just getting a moments respite from the chaos around him. Soon he lifts his head again and wipes his eyes, letting Adam know what he found out. 

Adam nods and sighs quietly, showing Kenny the connections he made already, but tearing up because it's not enough. They can't catch the guy like this. They need more information, not more bodies. But bodies are information, and that's all they can use to piece everything together. They sit on the biggest chair in the office, wrapped around each other, mentally preparing themselves and drawing strength to face the next few days.

They get the call a few hours later. Another family was tortured and murdered. Slowly, they patch up their mental walls, getting into that FBI Agent mindset and heading out to the new house. The same wash of red, same mutilated corpses, same delicate note on the bedspread. It haunts their dreams now, "do better next time". 

But this time something's different. This time, the killer made a mistake. It's hardly noticeable, but that doesn't change it's still there. A small bit of skin under the wives fingernails, something they can send into the lab to be tested. It's not much, but it's enough to give them hope they can catch the killer and stop more bodies from piling up.

Another long day of putting together evidence and pouring over tapes, they narrow it down to a handful of possible suspects. Not enough to convict one of them, but enough to take them into custody for questioning overnight, hopefully enough to stop another slaughter. At least long enough to get the test results back the next day.

Kenny and Adam return to the hotel room and collapse into bed together, too tired to do anything else other than kick off their shoes and fall asleep. Luckily, no nightmares come this time, whether that's because of the company or exhaustion neither can say for sure, but it's better than screaming all night long and barely getting any rest. 

In the morning, they wake up and get ready, going down to the police station to get the results of the DNA test. Kenny's stomach swims with nerves, needing to know who it was. Finally, they get the results. He sighs in… not relief. But they got it right. One of the men in a holding cell is the one who killed all these people. And he's going to do his best to make sure he goes away for a long, long time.

Him and Adam work in tandem, gathering up the evidence and putting it together into something usable in a trial while the police arrest the murderer. It doesn't take long, they had most things organized, just needing to put a few things together, before they go back to the hotel and pack their things. Not long after, they get on the plane to take them back home. 

They stay tangled in each other's limbs as they go, relieved they caught the man but mourning the loss of those families. Even with knowing there was nothing that could be done, it doesn't make them feel any better. They were right there, they should've been able to catch him. But next time, and there will be a next time somewhere in the country, they'll be better. Catch the guy sooner, prevent so much bloodshed.

Back at home, they finally go their separate ways to empty apartments. After almost a week of sleeping next to Adam, Kenny sighs when he flicks on the light to his small apartment, a gaping emptiness where Adam always stands next to him. He got so used to having company, now he doesn't know what to do with himself without his Adam by his side. But he has things to do, he has to get the place livable again for however long he's there, whether it's a day or a few weeks.

Unbeknownst to Kenny, Adam has the same problem. The longing for the slightly smaller man pressed into his side, nakedness of no one having his back. Of course the area is perfectly safe, he scouted it for a week before renting the apartment, but it doesn't change his paranoia and need for Kenny. Obviously he knows Kenny doesn't feel the same way about him, but he can pretend that's true at least until he adjusts to being alone once more. 

Kenny lasts all of two hours of lying awake in his too big, too cold bed before he gives in to what he wants and calls Adam. He lets the phone ring twice before realizing what he's doing and hangs up, stomach churning and hoping desperately he didn't wake the other man. But he hears  _ I'm a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride, I'm wanted, dead or alive _ play from his phone and he sighs, picking it up.

"Hey Kenny, is everything okay?" The familiar southern voice instantly comforts him, a warm blanket in cold nights. A small smile creeps across his lips as he hears shuffling from the other side of the phone.

"I can't sleep without you." He mumbles quietly, blush covering his cheeks as he admits it. He can't believe he grew that reliant on someone so quickly, let his heart get so comfortable next to someone he couldn't let them go.

Adam blushes too, a small smile over his face as he gets up, going to get his shoes and keys. "I can't sleep without you either Kenny. I'll be over in ten minutes, okay?" 

"You don't have to do-" the sound of a phone hanging up. Kenny looks down at his phone and smiles, he's not going to be alone. And Adam feels the same way about him. 

They need each other to function, somehow in such a short span they found their other half, someone to rely on, unwavering in trust. Kenny knows how lucky he is, that not everyone gets this, especially in their line of work. And now that he has it he's not going to let it go.

Upon hearing the knock on the door he gets up to let Adam in, smiling and wrapping his arms around him, feeling a pair of lips press to his forehead. Another faint blush, he smiles wider and pulls him back to his bedroom, tangling in the sheets with him and finding comfort in each other's arms. Protective, keeping the demons of their job far away. 

Waking up isn't awkward, they're used to this. The only change is not being in a hotel this time. With ease they walk around, taking advantage of their day off and learning more about each other through soft touches and glances. It's easy to co-exist, and soon they're finished, laying on the couch pressde close together, watching old movies to pass the time.

Adam spends the night. It's not even a question, they just go back to Kenny's bedroom when it gets late. Easily going through their nighttime routines, Adam knows Kenny needs to brush his teeth before he does, Kenny knows Adam needs to play music before getting into bed. And when they finally crawl into bed, they take their places around each other and fall asleep.

Going into work the next day, Kenny instantly knows something is wrong. Everyone's on edge. He doesn't know why, but as him and Adam get to their shared office they get called to the director's office. A quick glance, neither know why. It could be about the case they just worked, but they didn't think they did  _ that _ poorly of a job. At least not bad enough for the director to scold them and set everyone on edge. 

They enter the room, Adam first with Kenny half a step behind like they always do when working in the field. But what awaits them, neither expected. The director looks stressed, an almost empty folder sitting on her desk. She looks up at them and drags her hand down her face, waving them to the seats in front of her desk. She flips open the file and turns it around so they can see it.

"I know the two of you are new, but your work on the last case showed me how well you work together on cases with limited information. And… we're stretched thin as is, we need all hands on deck. That's why I'm entrusting this case to you."

Kenny glances at Adam and nods, reading the limited information in the file. There's simply a photograph of a deer antler carved into a femur bone next to a pile of ashes. Which he assumes is the corpse. His stomach churns, "what is this?" A breathless whisper.

She sighs, "we're calling them the bucks. A serial killer team, we're fairly certain it's two men, but that's about all we know. The first body with the signature showed up two years ago and we've been on their tails ever since. But they're good, know how to evade the law and clean up a crime scene. They only leave a pile of ashes and a femur with the antlers carved into it.

Adam nods and flips through the dozens of photographs they have, "is this it? Only crime scenes? There aren't any people or signs of people besides the corpse?" He asks, looking up at her and back at the photos. The carved femurs almost smiling back at them.

"Unfortunately, yes. They're good, very good. They know how to avoid security cameras and draw people away from them. There's nothing left behind either, not even footprints."

"How do you know it's two people?" Kenny speaks up, glancing at the pictures. He hates how little information there is, it's been what, two years? And only bodies. No mistakes. 

"The carvings. Some of them are distinctly different from the others," she points at one of the pictures, "see the lines, this one's more artistic than others, a lot more. And is done with a different knife than others. There are just too many differences to be anything but two people."

Adam nods and looks at the pictures for longer, sighing quietly when he can't find anything more. There's just not enough information. Grasping at straws when all the straws are millions of miles away, so far out of reach there's not a glimpse of them in sight, or any hope of finding them again. 

"Good luck you two, you're going to need it. I've given all the police stations this number," she pulls out a cell phone and sets it on top of the file, "they're to call it if they get any murders like these ones or any tips of who these bucks are."

Kenny takes the phone and nods, gathering up the pictures and putting them in the file before exchanging a glance with Adam. They get up and take everything back down to their office, laying out all the information on the table and staring at it. Adam lets out a long sigh and starts plotting the geographic areas with approximate times of the killings, looking for patterns hidden in the information.


	3. Livin On A Prayer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things start getting spicy and there's a bit of torture in the first half or so of this chapter. I marked the end of it centered in bold if you want to skip it.

The gang headquarters should be busy at noon. Which it is, all of them pouring over their next assignment, those higher up the chain barking orders around at the ones under their control. The gang leader should be in his office. Which he isn't. Instead, he's roped to a chair in the basement, two brothers murderous smiles glinting in the faint sunlight shining through a window.

They were careful, scouting the building for days before attacking. Of course they didn't have to murder him in broad daylight with a full house above, but their client paid extra for a dramatic finish. And Matt and Nick always had a flair for the dramatic, playing up their reluctance to squeeze out a few thousand more but eager to test their skills.

Breaking in was easy, hauling the yards of soundproofing material wasn't. But it was all worth it to be able to torture the leader in his own building. As always, Matt starts first, his quick and brutal strikes making the leader sing in pain. Nick eagerly watches from atop a table nearby, grinning as the screams get ever louder. 

Soon they switch off, Matt taking his turn watching while Nick expertly slides his x-acto knife under the leader's fingernails, slowly taking them off one by one. A gleeful laugh, he always loved breaking down the toughest of men. Each of the fingernails drop to the ground with a thud, one, two, three, six, ten. 

Nick steps back to admire his work, the tears falling over the leaders cheeks but far from broken. But that's okay, they have so much more hidden up their sleeves. Well, they're wearing muscle tops, easier to clean blood from skin than fabric, but the point still stands. They've a plethora of other tricks to make the leader beg.

They let the leader suffer for a few more moments before Matt starts his work again, slowly, methodically dislocating joints starting at his toes before moving up his legs. He savors the sound of the pop, the hiss of pain and the high from power. Finally, another scream from the leader. Nick purrs quietly and saunters over, slicing halfway through one of the man's ears.

Blood gushes out and Nick grins devilishly, Matt rolling his eyes and shooting his younger brother a glare. Nick simply shrugs and wipes the blade on the leader's shirt tatters, leaning back to watch Matt keep dislocating joints until he reaches the hips. A smile washes over Matt's face as he sees how much pain the leader is in, writhing around in the chair but trying to not jostle his dislocated lower half.

Matt hands Nick a hair tie who takes it, pulling his hair back and out of the way while pulling out a long knife. He carefully holds the man's leg steady, letting Nick cut the pants leg away from the thigh, exposing the flesh. A gleeful look at his older brother before he starts slicing, the blood rushing out onto the tarp like a crimson wave. Calmly, Matt moves his hands away from the torrent of blood, sitting back to watch.

Nick smirks and carefully slices out a patch of skin, peeling it back before slicing through muscle and fat, a jolt of euphoria at the sight of the crimson and screams of agony. Two years ago this would have horrified him, made him sick to his stomach, but now it's normal, he craves every moment of it. Matt should regret letting his brother into this business, but seeing Nick here is strangely beautiful, the harm he can cause from a delicate little blade. 

Screams even after the voice is hoarse, still frantic struggles not yet weakened since the blade avoided the femoral artery. It took a few tries but eventually the brothers learned where the major arteries were and how to avoid them, wanting to drag out the torture for as long as possible. Not all their clients pay for it, but the high of it is too tempting to resist.

So Nick keeps going, surges of ecstasy through his body as he peels back more muscle to finally reach the white of bone. He looks up at the terrified expression on the leader's face, grinning in return, before starting to carve their signature antlers into the bone. Screams tear from the leader's throat as Matt stares on in awe, the crimson staining his hands not bothering him whatsoever.

Precisely and methodically, Nick makes his carvings, one line after the other, marring the pristine bone. He laughs,looking up and smirking when he sees the leader didn't pass out from the pain. That just makes him take extra time in carving, drawing out the agony for as long as he can. Matt smirks too, the pleading going in one ear and out the other. The leader clearly knowing who they are and just how much danger he's in. 

"Aww the big tough man not passing out from the pain of a little carving huh, I'm impressed. Most people give into the pain, not clinging desperately to consciousness like you are." Matt purrs, watching Nick finish and wipe the blade off in a clean spot of fabric, handing it hilt first to Matt. 

"It's okay, not that much longer." A twinkle in Matt's eyes as he just barely hits each of the carotid arteries, letting the blood wash over the man tied to the chair. Nick laughs and squeezes Matt's arm, not wanting to stain either of their clothes, taking the phone he had inside a ziploc bag and taking a picture of the mutilation as proof for their client. 

They watch the life drain out of the man's eyes onto the tarp until they're one hundred percent sure he's dead, taking another picture for proof before going about cleaning up. Efficient as a machine, the two years only brought them closer and they immediately take over what they're supposed to be doing.

Matt sends the pictures to their client, making sure to take a picture of the bone, before gathering everything and tossing it onto the tarp. Then, he washes his hands and carefully disconnects the fire alarm and removes the soundproofing, now three in the afternoon there should be enough noise to cover the sound of fire until they get away.

Meanwhile Nick takes the sharpest knife they have and slices through more muscle and sinew, humming "Stayin Alive". Ligaments cut with practiced ease, revealing the bone underneath. He delicately takes it out and sets it just out of reach of the tarp, close enough whoever finds it will put two and two together, but far enough to not be singed by the hungry flames. 

Nick washes up in the sink as Matt finishes around the room, wiping away all traces of their presence besides the corpse still slowly leaking blood. Once his arms look clean as ever, Nick packs up his various blades and slings the bag holding them over his shoulder, looking to Matt before the elder lights the match and drops it on the tarp. They linger for a few moments to watch the flames eat away at the body before leaving through the window, closing it behind them and going to the cafe across the street.

It should be harder to act normal, pretend like he didn't just help his brother torture someone to death for twenty thousand dollars, but Matt doesn't feel any remorse. Any and all of that was burnt away like the body in the basement. All that's left is the hunger to see more blood, spill it onto the ground and revel in power over life and death. 

They eat calmly, waiting for the sound of chaos coming from the building opposite. It doesn't take long, maybe fifteen minutes before someone notices the stench of smoke and goes downstairs to check it out. Nick can't hear the screams or reactions of people seeing the burnt remains, but he can imagine it, the times they stayed to watch the chaos clear in his mind's eye.

He takes another sip of coffee and laughs, putting down enough money for their food on the table before grabbing Matt's hand and pulling him out of the cafe. They stroll down the street past all of the police cars showing up, pretending like they're ordinary people. Until they get back to their motel room and lay on the beds, relaxing after a long day's work.

**Torture end**

\-----

The sound of a phone ringing cuts through the tender moment. Kenny sighs and breaks the kiss, reluctantly stepping away from Adam, even more so when he sees which phone is ringing. Not his, nor his work burner. The one the director gave them for information on the bucks case. With a heavy heart Kenny answers the phone, giving a longing glance at Adam's arms.

"Hello, this is SSA Kenny Omega. Are you calling about the bucks?" He leans against the table for a moment before grabbing a pad of paper and a pen. Flipping it open to the next clean page, he clicks the pen and listens to what the caller wants.

"Yes, I am. My name is Officer Reynolds, I'm with the New York City Police Department. There was just another pile of ashes, femur bone carved with the antlers. I don't know whether you want me to give you the information now or if you're going to come down here. Because the kill is fresh, real fresh. There's a chance they're still around."

Kenny's eyes widen and he nods, immediately signaling to Adam to get their go-bags from the lockers. They've never had a kill that's been more recent than four or five days. So why change that now, why would these bucks let their kill be seen so quickly. They haven't done that in the past two years, why now of all times? Surely they can't know they have agents on their trail, right?

"Give me it now so when we get there we can immediately go to the crime scene." Kenny replies, snatching the paper and pen before the door opens. Adam shoulders both bags, knowing Kenny's attention is needed elsewhere, and steers him gently towards the car, getting him into the passenger seat while he talks.

"Right. This body was the leader of a notorious gang, the Jets, name is Max Friedman. One of the members smelled smoke coming from the basement and went downstairs to tell what he thought was a smoker to take it outside, but then he saw the burning body and the femur sitting next to it. I guess he opened the windows to try and clear out the smoke, but didn't realize just how much there was and someone called the police."

Kenny nods and writes down the important parts, "and how old do you think the body is? How much of a head start would they have on us? We'll be there in less than two hours." 

Adam pulls the car into the airport and helps Kenny out, grabbing the bags again while leading him to the plane. Even in Kenny's distracted state he can instinctively follow his partner, trying to scribble down words as he half walks half runs to keep up. 

"It can't be longer than four or five hours, well, actually it's probably less than that. We questioned some of the gang members and they said they saw Max at eleven am, it was three pm when the body was found. They couldn't have gotten far in the short time between the body being called in and us contacting you. They'll have a bit of a start this time but it's still a lot better than other times."

"Thanks for calling so fast." Kenny replies, frantically scribbling down notes and trying to keep up with Adam before they get to the terminal, not having to go through security since they're federal agents. He hangs up the phone and slips it into his pocket, taking his bag from Adam and handing him the notepad full of writing.

Or what Kenny calls writing and what Adam calls a mess of scribbles that sometimes form letters if the moons align right. But after working with him for a few months he's somewhat gotten used to it. What baffles him the most is Kenny isn't even writing in shorthand, it would be one thing if he were. No, this is normal English. 

In spite of that, Adam puts his head down and tries to decipher it, getting vague ideas of what each sentence means (though he's fairly certain "pink frogs golf over a volcano" isn't right) as Kenny leads him onto the plane. Once seated, he gives up all hope of reading the notes and just turns to Kenny, dropping the notepad between them on the seat.

"So, what's going on? Who did these bucks get this time?" Adam asks, rubbing the bridge of his nose to stop any headache from forming after trying to read the nonsense. It's a lot easier to get it right from the man in question. 

"Unfortunately, yes," a tired sigh, "a gang leader found  _ under the gang's headquarters _ . I knew they were ballsy, but didn't realize it was this much. The kill was fresh though, once we get there it can't be more than four or five hours cold. That should give us a little bit of a lead, right?"

Kenny desperately looks to Adam for any shred of hope, that they might be able to catch the killers before more bodies turn up dead. Adam shrugs helplessly, ignoring the plane taking off under them.

"I don't know Kenny," he mumbles, "but it's a hell of a lot better than we've had in the past. We'll make it work, and there are more possible witnesses this time. They got sloppy, and they're going to pay for it." 

Kenny nods slowly and Adam lifts the seat divider between them, letting Kenny curl into his side and rest his head on his chest. Taking a moment to themselves on the plane before they hit the ground running, no clue as to the horrors that await when they get to New York. 

All too soon yet not fast enough they land, quickly getting their bags and getting a taxi to the police station. Inside it's a whirlwind of activity, many normal cases going on with officers running around while others herd the two agents into a big conference room with all the evidence they've been able to gather. 

It's hardly anything, just a bare timeline, pictures of the crime scene, and transcripts of interviews from some of the gang members. In a normal case, they would barely have anything to go off. But this isn't a normal case, and this much information is more than they've ever had. And they're going to make it count.

A fairly skinny man with long hair approaches, holding out his hand for them to shake, followed by a shorter, bald man with a long beard. "You're SSA Omega, right?" A nod in response, "great. I'm Officer Reynolds, this is my partner Officer Silver. We got the call of the fire and knew we had to call you in as fast as possible."   
  
They shake hands with Adam before sitting down, the shorter one opening his mouth, "we blocked off every entrance and exit from the city when we saw it was the work of the bucks. They wouldn't have had time to escape the city, not from where the building was and how the traffic was. And public transit wouldn't have been that fast. They're somewhere in the city we're fairly sure, but that's not much. It's a big place."

"Unfortunately we don't know anything about what they look like, just that it's two men based on the strength alone needed to do the carvings." Adam explains, "that means we don't have a lot of things to work off of, but this is the best lead the bureau has had in the two years of them being active." 

Reynolds nods and points to a few pictures, "these are the people we currently have in custody. Feel free to question them, we got what we could out of them." Adam glances at Kenny who nods and immediately gets up, selecting one to start with and going to the interrogation room.

Adam gets up as well, going to the computer set up with CCTV footage on it, looking at the surrounding area the half hour or so before the body was found. Because of how untouched the rest of the basement was, they had to have been around not long before then. If they were in the path of the cameras that is. 

He scrubs through the footage but there are too many people that fit the description of what they were looking for, too many pairs of men walking around close to one another. So he opens another window and looks through footage of the time around Max went missing. Much to his shock, he finds something that could be useful.

It takes time, the two men didn't make it easy for him to stitch together their faces, but that's more due to the camera positioning than anything else. But nevertheless, Adam has a lead. Sure, it could turn out to just be a coincidence, but he has to try. Can't let them slip through his fingers. Not if it meant catching the bucks and bringing dozens of bodies to justice. 


	4. Fool Me Once

Kenny walks in and immediately goes over to Adam, looping his arms around him and resting his chin on his shoulder. He presses a quick kiss to his cheek before looking at the footage. It's unmistakable, the two men are around the building both when the abduction took place and when the fire could have been lit. Naturally, they need more information, but they can at least bring them in for questioning. 

"So Adam," a playful glint to Kenny's eyes, "what about we make a bet." The man in question looks a little confused, not sure what his partner is planning. 

"What kind of bet? What are we betting on?" He asks, a bit cautious about what he's getting himself into. Because Kenny has some brilliant ideas, but he also has some very dumb ones, and he needs to know which of the two it is.

"Look at them, how close they are and comfortable with each other. Want to bet they're husbands?" Kenny grins, normally he wouldn't make jokes about this, but he knows they need something to laugh about after so much tragedy. 

Adam rolls his eyes but decides to humor him, looking at the tape and studying their interactions, "you're an idiot for someone so good at reading people. Obviously they're brothers Kenny. Can't you tell, and their faces, it's a bit similar."   
  
Kenny shakes his head and pouts, "hey, don't question my abilities. Besides they look nothing alike. When we find out how long they've been married you'll owe me twenty dollars, okay?" He nudges Adam with his elbow until the cowboy agrees. 

"So how are we going to find the two  _ brothers _ ?" Adam questions, earning a glare from Kenny. Adam just laughs, ruffling Kenny's hair who huffs and pouts, trying to fix it before just giving up on it and moving on.

"Well we can find the  _ husbands _ by asking around motels and stuff until one of the clerks recognizes them." Kenny replies, printing copies of the faces and handing one to Adam. "Odds are they paid in cash so we can't trace them by credit card. And the facial recognition software here is… not very good."

Adam nods and takes the pictures, "split up then I guess, cover more ground that way. If I get a match, I'll call you." He makes to leave before hesitating a moment, "stay safe out there, okay?"

Kenny nods and smiles, "you too Adam." He looks at the photographs and he shakes his head a little. They don't look like murderous psychopaths, but then again hardly any of them do. And he doesn't know their personalities at all to judge them based on that. But he lets out a sigh, this was all fabricated under the pretense of coincidence, not any solid evidence. They could be on a wild goose chase for nothing.

\-----

Tension lays over the room, both men inside on edge but able to distract themselves from it by laying on a bed together and watching stupid cat videos. Normally, always, they're gone by now, another state over and laughing over their kill together. Of course they knew there would be more risk in this one, get caught faster, but they thought they would at least be able to get out of the county. 

But they make the most of it, laying around with each other and spending time together outside of murder. Honestly, it had been a while since they talked about stuff other than new ways to torture someone or the next hit, and it's kind of a nice change. Until Matt gets tired of being cooped up in a motel room and gets restless, the few hours of laying around already too much.

"Matt just calm down will you, it's just going to be for another day or something and then they'll open up the roads again and we can leave. It's not that bad alright." Nick turns on his side to watch his brother pacing around the room.

"It's not okay, we might get caught this time. We've never been stuck like this, and I heard we have our own FBI agents searching for us, we can't afford to make mistakes like this!" Matt rambles, running his hands through his hair and looking desperately at Nick.

Nick sighs and gets up, taking Matt's hands and staring him in the eyes, "we won't get caught. And even if we do, they barely have anything on us. Not enough to convict us, we're fine. Look, if it'll make you feel better go out and take a walk. Leave your hair down, change clothes, you'll look different than earlier today. Alright?" 

Matt deflates and gives a small nod, leaning against Nick for a moment before getting a change of clothes and going to the bathroom to change. Nick lays back on the bed and stares at the ceiling, the sound of the door to the motel room closing before he closes his eyes to take a nap.

Suddenly, he's awoken to the sound of knocking on the door. He groans and gets up, ready to scold Matt for forgetting his room key before seeing it's not Matt. A tall blond man and a slightly shorter curly haired man stand in front of the door, serious looks on their faces. And pictures of him and Matt in their hands.

"Mr. Jackson we're going to need you to come with us. Is your partner here too? We want to talk to him as well." The taller of the two speaks, Nick internally panicking. Matt was right, they got caught. But they can't know too much, right? They were careful, very careful. He bites his lip and calms himself, no use getting panicked and sloppy over something that could be nothing.

"Uh, no. It's just me. I don't know when he'll be back, sorry. But I guess I can come with you if that helps." Nick replies, forcing his voice to stay steady and hoping Matt doesn't come back. Because he's fine with being arrested, he can probably talk his way out of it, but Matt doesn't have that self control and would just make everything worse.

The shorter sighs and nods, "that'll do. We'll give you a minute to get your shoes on before taking you down to the station." 

Nick nods and disappears inside, getting his shoes on and scribbling "they found me, nothing serious, our faces out, be careful" on a piece of paper. Carefully, he hides it from their view and puts it under Matt's pillow, one of their designated areas to hide important information.

He emerges from the room and closes the door behind him, the agents flanking him on either side. To an outsider, it would be two friends dragging along a reluctant third, but he knows better. It's not a very long walk before they get to the police station, Nick internally kicking himself because if he knew it was that close he would've picked a different motel. 

They steer him into an interrogation room and leave him for a minute, letting him collect his thoughts and figure out what to do next. He's at least 90% sure the two agents are dating, maybe he can use that to his advantage. But in any case he combs through his hair with his fingers, rubbing his eyes and trying to look as young and innocent as possible. 

The silence breaks when the curly haired man walks in, checking his cuffs before sitting in the chair opposite him. "So, what's your name?" 

Nick laughs softly, hoping to play it off as nervous but he's ecstatic on the inside. They really have nothing, don't even know his name. It would be so easy to lie here, but he doesn't want to start lying just yet, not when they could easily fact check him. "Nick Jackson, and what's yours handsome?" He grins across the table.

The other blushes and stutters for a moment, "Agent Omega. Kenny Omega." He adds. Nick feels his eyes on him and gives him an innocent look, making a point of looking him up and down. 

"Nice to meet you Kenny. Well, not exactly under these circumstances, but it's a pleasure to see such a nice face." He teases, glancing at his muscles. It's more to see how dangerous he is, see if he would be able to outmuscle him, but it serves other purposes too which is nice. Deciding he has absolutely no chance of being stronger, he knows he has to be smarter.

\-----

Kenny blushes more, for some reason the words of Nick getting to him. Maybe it's because he hasn't been flirted with in a long time, not since before Adam. Because while him and Adam work well together, they never really flirt with words, all fleeting touches. He forgot how much words got to him.

"I… um... " He stammers while collecting his thoughts, the weight of a stare on him only making him more flustered. Why is this guy flirting with him when he's married? Just to get him off guard? Unfortunately, it's working. "What, uh, what were you doing around here at noon? And with the other guy. Who is he?"

A beat of silence, "oh, that's just Matt. We were hungry and looking for a place to eat, heard there was a good restaurant nearby so we checked it out." Nick shrugs across the table and leans back in the chair as far as his restraints will let him. 

"And what about later that afternoon?" Kenny asks, getting himself more collected. He tells himself he won't stare at Nick, he really won't. That lasts all of five seconds before he looks, cheeks dusting pink again. 

"Matt was hungry again and didn't want me staying at the motel alone." Nick replies easily, "he's weird like that sometimes, especially in new cities. I guess that's what happens with older brothers, pushing your buttons." 

Kenny nods absentmindedly before he processes what was said. Damn, he owes Adam then. Brothers, not married. "Alright… what did you do in between then?

"Just explored the city, we always wanted to come here but never had the chance until now. Gotta say I wasn't expecting this though. Both being arrested and meeting one of the most attractive men I've seen." Nick taps his fingers on the table, Kenny looking closer to see if it's just a habit or one of his tells. 

Kenny blushes again, cursing himself for showing weakness internally but unable to stop himself. "Right, um, sorry." He tries to think back to the hotel room, but all he can picture is Nick's face. "Why did you torture and kill Max Friedmen this afternoon?" 

Nick's eyes widen in shock and he looks at Kenny frantically, "what- you think we did this? No, there's no way. I get nauseous at the sight of blood, Matt knows that and keeps me away from it." He pales and bites his lip, looking down. A tiny bit of pity goes through Kenny, if the guy is this upset at the thought of blood, there's no way he could be one of the bucks.

And part of him doesn't want to believe it, silencing the little voice in his head that calls to his logic, what if Nick was just acting. But from what Kenny can tell, Nick wouldn't do that, the reaction too sincere to be faked. Of course he has to ask a few more questions, but he concentrates more on the other man than detecting lies.

Thrown off by the display, Kenny doesn't notice how the other man's shoulders shifted for a fraction of a second, too quick for a camera to pick up on. It went from terrified and disgusted to confident before he got himself under control again, all unbeknown to the interrogator. "So Nick, do you know anything about the bucks?"

Nick just looks utterly confused, "what? I mean I know about deer, is that what you mean? Or do you mean money, I know both of those. Why wouldn't I?" 

Kenny has to admit he looks cute when he's baffled, but that doesn't get him anywhere. Another quiet sigh, "alright. Nevermind then." It was a long shot anyway, not much chance the other man would know anything about it. But now he's back to square one, no leads and he wasted two hours hunting down Nick. 

"So is this where you bend me over the table?" Nick smirks and raises an eyebrow, earning a bright red blush. Nick bursts out laughing at the response, leaning back in the chair and almost falling over.

"What- wait- no- no! No!" Kenny splutters, "what the fuck- no no no! That's not happening!" He flushes down to his neck, burying his face in his hands and trying to not think of anything like that happening. Nope. He won't think about it. But now it's all he can think of.

"You can go, um, thanks for cooperating?" Kenny stammers after a moment, sliding the key across the table while trying to get himself together again. Of all the things… he never expected that. He hears the click of handcuffs and the screech of a chair, averting his eyes from the other man.

\-----

On his way out, Nick winks at the blond standing at the other side of the one way glass. He barely makes out an angry scowl before he leaves the station, feeling rather good about himself. Instinct leads him back the way they came, opening the motel door to a stressed out Matt. 

Matt looks up from the bed and immediately runs over to Nick, punching him in the shoulder before hugging him. "Thank god you're okay, I was so worried about you. I got your note, the feds showed up here?"

Nick nods and hugs back before stepping away, kicking off his shoes and sitting on the bed. The bed dips and Matt sits next to him, "yeah, they found us. Apparently through security cameras, but they didn't know anything else. The guy interrogating me even thought we were husbands." 

Matt laughs and shakes his head, "wow. They really are clueless. Anything else useful you got out of it? I packed our bags while you were away." 

"Oh yeah. The two guys on our tail? They're dating." Nick chuckles and remembers the jealous rage the guy was in when he walked out. Of course he didn't go into the interrogation room with the intention of pushing buttons, but the opportunity was too good to pass up.

A raised eyebrow, "wait really? And you know that how exactly?" The butterflies in Matt's stomach start to settle, no longer as on edge about Nick being captured. Because clearly the agents after them weren't super qualified. He knows his brother isn't exactly the best liar so it had to be something good to distract them.

"Oh. I flirted with the guy holding me, I think his name was Kenny. Did that a bit, he got flustered real easily, it was fun, and then the other guy stared daggers at me as I left. So either they're already sleeping together or the other guy wants to be. I'm going with the first though since they were so easy with each other when they walked me to the station."

Matt nods slowly and sighs, squeezing Nick's shoulder, "I'm glad it wasn't too bad." He replies and gets up, getting their bags together. "No matter how much I know they don't have any clue it's us, I want to get out of here. Besides, we got another request, this time in Seattle. Gotta get going." 

Nick tilts his head and lays back on the bed, "so soon? We just did the other one this afternoon, there's no need to take another one for a few days, let's just relax, explore the city." 

"Since when have you ever passed up an opportunity to do another hit, what's gotten into you? You used to be so excited about it, you tired of it already?" Matt questions, sitting next to Nick again and looking down at him.

A shrug in response, "I don't know, we can take it if you want. I wanted to mess with them more but taking another hit sounds good." Nick smiles up at his brother, "Seattle huh, been a while since we were there. You sure you won't get your dick bit by a goose again?" He fights back a laugh.   
  
"That was one time!! It's never going to happen again. And I don't know why that goose wanted it so bad." Matt protests, cheeks dusting pink as Nick gives in to laughter. Matt growls and throws a pillow at him, only making him laugh harder. "Fine, we can stay until tomorrow, if you bump into them tonight that's fine. But we leave tomorrow morning. And no mentioning the dick biting goose again!"


	5. Is It Passive Aggressive If It's Not Very Passive?

Adam grits his teeth, going back to the evidence room. There's something off about Nick, but he doesn't know what it is. Something that tells him there's more to him than meets the eye. An underlying aggression, twisted piece of him Kenny didn't uncover. But he doesn't know how to put it into words, and that bothers him a lot. 

He should trust Kenny, he's great at his job and can get information out of the toughest to crack. But something feels wrong about this one. And no, he's not just saying that because he's jealous. Right? Jealousy wouldn't put this into his gut. Besides he's not jealous, he knows his relationship with Kenny is stable. 

The internal dilemma prevents him from hearing Kenny emerge, jumping out of his skin when he sees the other standing next to him, "it was just a coincidence he was there, nothing related to the murder. So we're back to having no leads." Kenny sighs and leans against Adam.

"I don't know Kenny, there was something off about that guy. I can't put it into words but… I feel like there was so much more underneath the act he put on." He tries to explain the feelings to Kenny, "I think we need to talk to him more, maybe his brother too. There's something they're hiding."

Kenny rolls his eyes and gets his wallet from his pocket, pulling out the money and handing it to Adam. "You're just jealous honey, he was really forward and different than what I'm used to, but trust me. There wasn't anything else there, I think that's just him. Just a frat boy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time." 

Adam smirks and takes the money, pocketing it and shaking his head, "no, there was. I swear, if you weren't so distracted by his words you would've seen it too. I've watched enough of your interrogations to know when someone's hiding something, he was clearly hiding something."

"Babe you know that's not true. I was thrown off but he really didn't know anything. It's just your jealousy talking, I'll admit he's cute but I like you more. Trust me, he wasn't hiding anything. He probably doesn't have two brain cells to rub together and form a cohesive thought." Kenny mumbles and kisses Adam's cheek.

Unlike normal, Adam doesn't react. It's not just jealousy, there really was something Nick was hiding. But he can't go around Kenny like that and find out what it was, his partner would inevitably find out and he's not confident enough to make Kenny that mad at him. "If you insist…"

Kenny smiles and nods, "I do. I promise, nothing's there. It's almost dinner time, want to go out and get some food? Might as well have a date night." He suggests, wrapping his arms around him and looking up at him.

A soft sigh and nod, small smile across Adam's lips as he presses a kiss to his forehead. "Fine, we can get dinner. Italian okay? I don't feel like going anywhere fancy tonight." 

"Of course, sounds great." Kenny smiles and breaks away, getting his things together as Adam does the same. Pretty soon they finish up and walk out, Adam's arm around the smaller as they wander the streets to find somewhere to eat.

All of a sudden Kenny bumps into someone and he stumbles a little, "I'm so sorry-" he gets his footing again and steadies the other man. Until he looks up at who it is and a small smile washes over his face. "Hey Nick, funny seeing you again. Sorry about earlier."

Nick shrugs and smiles, "it's alright, it was an accident. Yeah, it's nice seeing you outside of a holding cell." He chuckles and smiles at Adam who scowls back. Adam knows there's something wrong, this next encounter only solidifying it. That weird aura around Nick, he feels it again. It's not natural, there's something darker in him. But he doesn't say anything, just studies him this time.

Kenny chuckles, "yeah, it's definitely nicer this way. Hey uh, can I get your number? In case we need to ask you more questions or something." 

"Of course," Nick nods and takes out a pen, grabbing Kenny's arm and writing his number on it. "There ya go." He grins and subtly looks Kenny up and down, a fire burning in Adam's stomach. Adam glares and wraps an arm around Kenny tighter.

"See you around handsome," Nick smirks and waves, walking off and to a slightly shorter man with black hair, Adam barely recognizing him as his brother from the pictures. Adam huffs and drags Kenny away, staring daggers at the numbers scrawled along his arm.

Kenny rolls his eyes and kisses Adam's cheek, pulling him into a restaurant he finds, "babe relax, it's just playful. He knows we're together and that I love you very much." 

"Does he? Because it didn't look like he did." Adam growls, jerking away from Kenny a little and sitting on the opposite side of the table, not side by side like they usually do. A small frown but Kenny doesn't fight it, ignoring it and letting Adam be frustrated. He'll talk about it when he's ready.

\-----

Nick smirks as he walks back to Matt, eyebrows wiggling as he falls in step with him, "that was them, see what I mean? He was so jealous." A laugh, "it was so fun pushing his buttons, I wonder how much I can get away with." 

Matt rolls his eyes and punches his shoulder lightly, "yeah, I can see that. I'm surprised you weren't hit. And you don't know how weird it is to see you flirt with someone, like it's so bad it shouldn't work but somehow it does."

"Hey! I'm very charming." Nick protests, following Matt into a Mexican restaurant, sitting across a table from him. "You just don't know because I haven't hit on you before." 

"Keep telling yourself that, if it helps you sleep at night." Matt rolls his eyes and looks at the menu, doing his best to ignore Nick. They have to talk about normal things all night, nothing relating to murder or killing, but it's a nice change. Trying to be normal again. 

It's part of why neither have bothered going home in the few years they've been active, knowing they wouldn't have the skill to act innocent and like the Matt and Nick of old for longer than a few hours. Their job too much a part of them to pretend to be anything else. Sometimes it's hard, constantly thinking of blood and keeping an eye over their shoulder, but it's worth it.

After eating Nick pays for the food, getting up and walking with Matt back to their room. They lay on their beds, Matt watching  _ My Neighbor Totoro _ on his phone while Nick daydreams. Until the youngers phone buzzes and he sighs, seeing an unknown number and about to ignore it but realizing it could be Kenny. So he answers it.

"Hi, Nick? Is that you? I entered the phone number you wrote on my arm, I think I read it right. There are a few smudges but I think it was good-" a familiar voice from the other side and Nick smiles, "oh yeah it's Kenny if you couldn't tell."

"Yeah, it's Nick. Thanks for calling, by the way." He rolls over to his stomach, waving off Matt who looked over. "What's up?"

"Nothing much, just got back to the hotel after dinner with Adam. I thought I should call you before taking a shower and make sure this is the right number. For all I know you could've given me a fake number and gotten me into trouble. But I'm glad it is you and I can talk to you more. We didn't exactly get off on the right foot, sorry."   
  
Nick smiles and kicks his legs, tapping his fingers on the bedsheet as he listens to Kenny ramble. "It's okay, don't worry about it. You were just doing your job, I get it. How was dinner? Enjoy yourself?"

"Mostly, yeah. The food was good, but Adam was a bit upset and not in a great mood. But it's fine, he should be alright tomorrow. I think he's jealous of you which is pretty crazy." The sound of some people walking around fills the call, letting Nick know he's not in his room.

"Jealous of me? You're right, that's pretty wild. He shouldn't be jealous." Matt looks over and Nick smirks a little, "is there something else bothering you Kenny? It feels like you're hiding something from me." Not that Nick isn't hiding things from Kenny, but the other man hadn't commented on it yet.

"Uh, not really anything important. Just that Adam thinks something else is going on with you, but I told him he's just jealous. I know you're not that kind of guy, you're sweet." Nick can just hear the blush through the phone and he covers the mouthpiece, cackling.

Matt raises an eyebrow and Nick whispers, "he thinks I'm sweet," earning a laugh in response before he uncovers the mouthpiece, "aww thanks Kenny. I don't know why he thought I was hiding something, maybe just jaded from the years of being an agent."

A beat of silence until Kenny replies, "yeah, you're probably right. Sorry for dumping this all on you, I know we barely met. But I don't know, it just feels normal to talk to you. I can't really explain it, I guess I'm comfortable with you or something."

"Don't worry about it Kenny, I don't mind hearing you talk. You have a nice voice." Matt chokes down laughter as Nick glares at him, just about able to hear the blush he earned. "If you hear any weird background noise it's probably my brother, sorry about him. He's weird."

"It's okay, Adam can be weird too, I think that's pretty normal. If that even makes any sense. Uh, if you want we can meet up and talk face-to-face, it might be easier than over the phone." 

Nick looks over at Matt who shakes his head, gesturing to the clock on the side. It's so annoying when Matt's right, they have to get up early and go to Seattle for work. With a heavy heart, "sorry Kenny, I can't. Wish I could, but we have to leave kinda early tomorrow and I need to get some sleep."

"Oh, right. Sorry, I didn't mean to keep you up." Nick hears a quiet sigh, "I should get back to Adam too. It's late, he'll be wondering where I am. It was nice talking to you outside of an interrogation room."

"You too Kenny. Have a good night, sleep well." The click of a phone hanging up and Nick sighs, plugging in the phone by the side of the bed before getting up. He goes through his nightly routine and lays down again, turning to face Matt who's been staring at him ever since he got off the phone.

"You like him." Matt says simply, knowing that look in his brother's eyes. One absent for a long time, ever since they left home and high school relationships behind. But he still recognized it, he always knew how to read Nick easily and this is no exception. And the pillow thrown at his face only confirms that. 

"Whatever, shut up and go to sleep." Nick mumbles, rolling over and closing his eyes. Of course he's not in love with Kenny, that's absurd. He was only flirting with him to get out of the police station and to piss off Adam. No strings attached. But he hates how much he knows there are times Matt knows him better than himself; he fears this is one of those times.

\-----

Kenny gets back to the hotel room after hanging up with Nick, for some reason missing the voice in his ear. He knows he shouldn't miss it, he has Adam waiting for him back in the hotel room, and he loves Adam. But some part of him misses Nick, and he doesn't know why. 

Once he opens the door the tension seeps into his bones, Adam's mad. Why wouldn't he be mad, Kenny just talked to someone as a friend. He needs more friends in any case, he really only has Adam and that's probably not healthy. All he can hope is his partner gets over it quickly so they don't have too much tension for too long.

But when he sees Adam curled up on one side of the bed, back turned to the middle, Kenny knows it may take longer than he thought to get back on Adam's good side. He sighs quietly and takes a shower, trying to get his mind off everything and stop the sinking feeling in his stomach. And dreading going back to an uncomfortable bed.

Eventually he has to get out of the shower, turning off the water and drying himself off before pulling on clothes. He stares at himself in the mirror, rubbing his face and trying to not look so defeated. They didn't get any closer to solving the bucks case, and now Adam's mad at him. And he doesn't really know what he can do to solve either of the problems at hand. 

With a sigh he returns to the bed, crawling in the other side and staring longingly at Adam for a few minutes before giving up. There's a chance Adam's already asleep. So he turns over too and falls asleep, at least trying to, more like drifting in and out of sleep for a few hours. 

When he wakes up, Adam's already in the shower. It's a slap in the face from how things used to be, yesterday and all the days before they cuddled in bed trading tired kisses. But not today, and Kenny doesn't know when it'll happen again. Heart heavy, he lays in bed for a little while longer until Adam emerges, shrinking and walking around him to get ready.

\-----

Adam wasn't having a good day. Actually, more like he wasn't having a good twenty four hours. How funny a criminal could change everything, well, not actually a criminal yet but Adam knows better. Nick fucking Jackson. There's something sinister in him, but Kenny's too shielded by love-sick eyes to tell any different.

It should be him with the loving stares, not this other guy they just met. But he's not jealous, really, he's not. This is fine. It's fine Kenny's picking a guy he just only met over his partner of a few months. But he's not jealous. He's a grown man who can handle rejection, live with whatever decisions Kenny makes. He's mature like that.

But that doesn't stop him from ignoring Kenny all that morning. He can't help it, he needs some time to process it. Try and tell himself his instincts are wrong, that Kenny wouldn't make this sort of mistake. Not even… love would change Kenny's judgement. Right? He can keep feelings away from work. At least that's what Adam hopes. 

Breakfast is awkward, but at least it's not long. They just get bagels from a store and walk to the station while eating, distracted with their thoughts. Back at the station, Adam returns to his spot in the evidence room, looking through what they have on the bucks. Still, there's nothing. He watches Kenny replay the interrogation but turns away, not willing to watch Kennys reactions to Nick again if he can help it. 

But that doesn't stop him from hearing the voices, and he hears something that he didn't in the first time. A slight hesitation around when Kenny asks about the death, it's not normal. Adam turns it over in his head, almost certain that proves him right, but Kenny doesn't say anything about it. And while Adam knows some about this thanks to Kenny, he's not as skilled. So while Kenny doesn't say anything, it must be nothing.


	6. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More torture this time, if you want to skip there's the end torture in bold after it's over.

Seattle is really beautiful, but it's even more beautiful when Matt stares out the window of a soundproofed room with a bloody man tied up in a chair. He doesn't really know why this guy has a hit on him, it's not like he's part of a gang or a businessman or anything like that, but he's not there to ask questions. He's there to torture and kill. 

So he returns to the tied up man, casually pouring hydrofluoric acid on the man's legs and feet, smirking at the noises of pain coming from him. Matt carefully avoids the acid, connecting one half of a car battery to the man's right arm and the other half to his left hip. That way the current doesn't go directly through the heart. Then, he carefully pours saltwater around the connections. 

Nick smirks and gets up, peeking around Matt's shoulder to study the man. Surprisingly, there's no defeat in him, he looks like he's ready to keep fighting. Well they'll change that soon enough he supposes, they always get them to break. Sometimes it takes longer than others, but eventually all their targets sing like birds. 

But this target is tough, doesn't seem to have any regard for his own wellbeing. No matter, Matt goes over to the dial and turns it to 25% charge. That doesn't draw a reaction besides a small flinch so Matt turns it up to 50%, smirking a little when he sees the other man twitching. It's not enough to kill him, but it's at least enough to be uncomfortable.

Even more so when Matt increases it to 75% power, then he sits back and just lets the electricity do it's thing. It's not deadly, not yet at least, but it's still uncomfortable and that's the goal. He keeps it like that for a while, just talking to Nick about potential things to do to the target while changing the intensity at random intervals to make the target scream.

After a little while they turn it off and remove the wires, Nick smirking and using his knife to carefully carve off the man's eyelids. That earns him a scream and he smirks, savoring the sound of it and the blood rushing as he discards the flaps of skin on the tarp. Then, he wipes the blade clean before grabbing his fingers, slicing the skin back to reveal muscle, ligatures, and tendons.

A quick slice severs the tendons, leaving the bones only hanging by a pitiful ligature. Nick smirks and tugs on it, earning him a blood curdling scream and a snicker from Matt. Matt comes over and snatches the blade, doing the same to another finger. It's not as neat as the one Nick did, but it got to the same end, and soon they're playing with the ligatures of all ten fingers.

By this point their target's voice is torn up from all the screams, both bucks able to feel the waves of agony crashing from him and savoring it. Matt takes three of the remains of his fingers and laughs, braiding them together into a bloody mess. It's a morbidly beautiful bright crimson, and Matt can't help but slice them off along with a chunk of the target's hand to keep. 

Of course it's a forensic nightmare, but all it would say is who the target was. And it's not like the target couldn't be identified with a bit of work. Their disposal methods just make it time consuming for the target to be identified, not impossible. 

Nick rolls his eyes when he sees what Matt's doing, but he can't blame him. It's rather beautiful and he really likes it. Of course they'll need to pick up preservation material in the next few hours, but that's not too difficult. 

Then suddenly an idea occurs to him. He always wanted to try it, but never really had the opportunity before. It's one of those things he thought might be interesting, and now he has the perfect opportunity to see what it's like. 

So he picks up a scalpel and carefully carves around the eyeball, cutting through the optic nerve and blood vessels before delicately removing the eye. Matt looks on in a mix of shock, horror, and curiosity and Nick shrugs, examining the eye. The target pales significantly, this time not related to the blood loss and Nick smirks a little.

He cleans it with a bit of water on the tarp before popping it in his mouth, chewing it for a few seconds before spitting it out and retching. Instantly he gulps down water and shakes his head, pacing around and grabbing his coffee, long cold by now but anything will do to get the taste out of his mouth. 

Maybe that wasn't a good idea, but then again you only live once. At least Nick can now say with confidence he absolutely hates it and will never repeat the process again. Matt just watches the whole thing unfold, he never wanted to try an eyeball like Nick did but now he definitely isn't going to. 

Nick wipes his mouth with his hand, having many regrets about what he just did but it was somewhat worth it to see how disturbed the target looked. He gives a small smile before waving to Matt to finish the job, the coffee helping for now but he knows he needs something else soon. Something more flavorful and better tasting to get rid of the grossness of the eye.

Matt nods and slices the target's femoral artery, letting him slowly bleed out while he peels back skin, muscle, and tissue to carve their signature antlers into the femur. Meanwhile, Nick takes the phone and takes pictures of the target, being sure to avoid his brother but getting enough of the target to show he's dead and his face to their hirer. Eventually the body finally bleeds out and Nick checks for a pulse, finding none, and declaring the target dead. 

They clean up pretty easily, everything having been on the tarp that could be traced back to them, and Nick quickly retrieves the femur from the body. Matt pours gasoline all over the body and tarp before taking down the soundproofing, there weren't many pieces since they're in a rather abandoned place but still enough he doesn't feel like having to replace all of it. 

Soon they're ready to leave, Matt lighting a match and dropping it onto the tarp. They watch the body burn for a few moments, making sure it gets eaten by flames before leaving, the backpack slung over Nick's shoulders as they look for somewhere to eat. After all torture is a hard job and they have to eat something that isn't a human eyeball.

**End Torture**

\-----

Kenny wakes up to an empty bed and ringing phone, groggily reaching over to answer it. Really hoping it's Adam calling, he doesn't know where his partner went, but luck wasn't on his side. It's the bucks phone again, ringing with another number. He doesn't know why they moved so fast this time, usually they had more time between kills. But at least this means Adam will talk to him again.

So he sighs and answers the phone, a moment before "hello, is this SSA Omega? This is Officer Edwards with the Seattle Police Department. I apologise for calling you so early in the morning, but there's another body. The bucks struck again. We don't know how old the body is exactly but it can't be longer than a day or two."

"Alright, thanks for calling." Kenny forces himself to get up and find some paper, "tell me the details now, we'll be on the soonest flight out." He pulls up flights on his laptop while putting the phone on speaker, looking for the soonest flight out and finding one in an hour. Buying two tickets, he sighs, hoping it's not going to be too bad with Adam.

"Right. We found it in an abandoned apartment room, a pile of ashes and a femur with the carved antlers. The victim was Darby Allin, a troublemaker on the streets but not enough for someone to put a hit on him. Unless he got himself into some real shit in the past few months, he's not… important enough to be taken out like this."

Scribbling on the paper, "right, well, I guess anything is possible." A thought occurs, "do you have a picture of the carving? If so please send it to me, this isn't their usual victim type, I want to make sure it's not a copycat."

"Of course." She nods and he rattles off his email, waiting a minute until he receives the picture. Stomach turning to stone, it's a match to ones on file. And no one else has seen these carvings, the bureau had been extremely careful to not let them leak to prevent copycats. 

A quiet sigh, "it's them. I booked us a flight that leaves in an hour, we'll be there in seven hours." He hangs up the phone, rubbing his face and shrinking in on himself for a moment. It's too much, all of it. Adam being mad at him, the kill so soon, the fact he's pretty sure he saw a familiar pair of blue eyes follow him through his dreams.

He lets himself sit in pity for another minute before putting on a strong face, pulling on some clothes and leaving to find Adam. Upon entering the police station, he goes to the room with the evidence, a sigh of relief when he sees Adam. Biting his lip, he stays silent for a moment, finally able to watch him again without being glared at.

But a minute later he has to go in, tell him about the newest murder. "We need to pack up," Adam jumps at the voice and turns around, quickly an angry look settling onto his face, "there's a new body in Seattle, just got the call a few minutes ago. They stepped up the time between kills and it's a different victim but it's them."

Adam sighs and nods, waving him off and starting to pack up the boards silently. Kenny's stomach sinks, he doesn't want to have this tension between them. "Adam-" a glare cuts him off and he sighs quietly, nodding and packing up other things around the room necessary for the case. The silence hurts more than it should.

Soon they finish up and get their bags from the hotel room, to anyone else they would appear fine, but Kenny knows better. Their relationship is fragile, more so than ever before. Even their first time meeting and being paired together wasn't this uncomfortable. And he hates it. He hates it so much.

The flight is just as awkward, but at least they have other things to do. Adam looking through all his notes and studying the city of Seattle, Kenny rewatching his interrogation of Nick, though not finding anything else. He tells himself it's not so he can hear the voice of the one person not super upset with him, but he's not very good at lying to himself.

It's strange not being able to lean on Adam, but Kenny forces himself to endure. He did for so long on his own, a few days returning to that are going to be fine. Adam's stubborn but he's not that stubborn, he'll be ready to talk soon. Kenny has to hold onto that hope, otherwise he doesn't know what he'll do if it doesn't happen. 

Eventually they land and immediately head right to the police station, neither saying a word as they're met by a woman who identifies herself as Officer Edwards, taking them to the back. Immediately Adam and Kenny work in unison unpacking the suitcase full of notes and pictures, setting them up in the new place before going to see the body.

This time the bucks were back to their old ways of going places with no security cameras around so they couldn't try to do the whole pick out familiar faces thing. There are still cops at the crime scene who part to make way for Kenny and Adam who pretend to be a cohesive unit. They can feel the unease of the officers and don't want to make it any worse. No matter how hard it is to act like they get along. 

They don't spend too long at the scene, having studied enough of them to know what goes on, instead focusing on putting things together. Adam starts going through records of peoples travel, knowing the killers had to be in Seattle earlier and in New York City a few days ago, that narrows the pool significantly. And he can't even bring himself to be shocked when he sees two familiar names, Matt and Nick Jackson on one of the flights from NYC to Seattle just two days ago.

"Kenny," the other man jerks a little and looks over at his partner with a questioning glint in his eyes, "it's Matt and Nick. They're the bucks. I know you love Nick and don't think he's a killer, but he is." Part of him proud of him, his gut is right, another part sad that another person betrayed Kennys trust. 

"What- no. That can't be right Adam, it can't. No, Nick isn't a murderer, he wouldn't do something like this." Kenny pleads, desperation pouring off him in waves as he walks over to Adam, shaking his head, "no, I can't, won't believe it's him. We're going to find the actual killers, this is just a coincidence."

"I was willing to accept coincidence in New York, that was a bit of a stretch, but he was disturbing in the interrogation. You were too blinded by him to realize! I know you love him more than me, but I promise, he's who we're looking for." Adam tells him gently, turning back to the computer to show him the plane tickets he's found that match the bucks killings.

"No! You're wrong!" Kenny exclaims, shaking his head and glaring daggers at Adam, "you son of a bitch I knew you got jealous because you weren't perfect but blaming someone else for murder over it? I didn't think you would sink that low. It's not them! It's not Nick!"

Adam sighs and shakes his head, trying to hide the pain in his eyes but failing miserably. He gave his heart to Kenny, trusted him not to break it. But of course he can't have good things, it's not his destiny. He has to be okay with that, after all it means he can help other people have their happily ever afters. And that has to be enough. 

An uncomfortable silence before the sound of a phone ringing. Kenny takes it out and looks at it, shooting a glare at Adam then leaving the room to take the call. Adam sighs again, standing alone in the room, almost entirely certain he ruined his paradise. But it's worth it to catch the bucks. He's good at lying to himself like that.

Kenny answers the phone, going up to the rooftop with a small smile, "hey Nick." He gets to the roof and leans against the barrier, looking out at the waterfront and sighing quietly, trying to shake off the conversation he had with Adam. There's no way someone as innocent as Nick could be a murderer. 

"Hey handsome, hope I'm not calling at a bad time. I don't know how late it is in New York but I felt like I had to call you." Kenny blushes faintly and smiles, body relaxing at the sound of Nick's voice. 

"Actually, I'm in Seattle right now. It's not a bad time at all. And I think you are too, right? Do you want to get dinner tonight? It would be more fun to talk to you face to face. I mean you don't have to say yes if you don't want to- over the phone is fine, but-"

"I'd love to have dinner with you Kenny. Meet me at The Pink Door in two hours? That should be around dinner time. But I don't know if your body's used to East Coast times." Nick replies, Kenny getting lost in his voice for a moment before he registers it in his mind.

"Two hours is fine, I had an early lunch so I should be hungry around then." Kenny replies, not wanting to worry him and admitting he skipped eating lunch. It just wasn't convenient, and airplane food is terrible. He wasn't subjecting himself to that.

"Great, it's a date. See you later babe." Kenny hears the dial tone and his cheeks flush bright red. Did he just agree to going on a date with Nick? He thinks so, and he's pretty sure the other man thinks that too. At least that answers the Adam question, they're just partners in terms of their job now, not any other way.

\-----

Nick gets off the phone and smirks across the room at Matt, "that was easier than expected. See, I told you I'm charming." He saunters over to the bed and sits on the edge of it, looking at the map of Seattle and its surroundings between them. Matt rolls his eyes but stays silent, not willing to protest. They lean over the map and start planning.


	7. Falling For You

Two short hours later, barely enough time to iron out the kinks in their plan but they manage, Nick shows up outside The Pink Door. He sits on a nearby bench, scanning the faces for a familiar pair of blue eyes and mess of blind curls. Merely a minute later Nick smiles, getting up and going over to him, holding out his hand. "Shall we go in?"

A blush dusts across the blonds face and he nods, smiling at the other as they walk in together. Nick sits on the side closest to the door, his built up instincts telling him to do that, all the years of looking over his shoulder for the law. But now the law is at his mercy and he intends to take full advantage of that. 

Some human part of him feels bad for what's to come, he can see Kenny really likes him, but Nick lost any sense of humanity long ago. So he doesn't really feel too bad about it, not really. He smiles across the table and takes Kenny's hand, smirking at the sight of the blush across his cheeks. 

Soon the waitress comes over and takes their orders, an iced tea and shrimp scampi for Nick and lemonade with fettuccine alfredo for Kenny, and they resume talking. Kenny narrating tales of cases he's solved with the bureau, pointedly leaving Adam out of it. 

"It's rewarding, saving people. I never understood why people decided death was the ultimate control, everyone dies. But not everyone lives, that's the rewarding part about being an agent. You can give people some control over their lives." Kenny explains as he sips his lemonade, staring across the table at Nick. "But you never told me what you do for a living, what is it exactly?"

"Oh, me and Matt are… contractors. We get called in all over the country and help with a lot of things, our dad was a contractor too but he was more centralized. We wanted to see the country, and what better way than taking job offers all over." Nick explains, it's not really a lie, they really are contractors. But he never said exactly what it was they were contracted for. 

"That's cool, contracting sounds like an interesting profession. Being an agent helps you travel a lot too, though it's not very fun I have to say. It's always for bad reasons." Kenny mumbles, luckily pulled out of that train of thought by their food arriving. 

They both start eating as Nick keeps an eye on the time, occasionally glancing at the clock on the wall and making sure they're on schedule. "So, I haven't heard you mention Adam lately, what's going on with him? Is everything okay between you two?"

Kenny sours and shakes his head, "no, not really. He seems convinced you're a killer, even after I kept telling him there was no way. But he wouldn't let it go, and he got so jealous when you called… we're over. And I don't know if he's going to request to move teams."

Nick frowns and nods, though internally he bites back a cackle. It's so fun to have an agent wrapped around his finger, easy to toy with and play like a bongo. "I'm so sorry to hear that…. It sucks you had such a falling out over me, I wouldn't blame you if you chose him over me."

"No, it's okay. I don't want to be with someone who doesn't trust me after months of working together. It's… going to be a change for sure, but I'll live." Nick holds back a smirk as he listens to Kenny, "I just hope whatever happens it's not too terrible."

"I understand. I don't know what I would do if Matt betrayed me like that… I've leaned on him for so long I can't imagine life without him by my side. I don't want to imagine life like that. He's my rock, you know, keeps me sane most days."

Kenny nods, "it must be so nice to have that unwavering trust in someone. I thought I found that with Adam… I guess not." He frowns and Nick takes his hand, running his thumb over his knuckles and trying to offer a little support. Put on the act of being a good person. It's fun, he hasn't played this role in such a long time it's a nice change.

"Well, um, tell me about yourself. Who is Kenny Omega the person, not Kenny Omega the agent?" Nick asks, really just trying to eat up time since he overestimated how long it would take for them to eat. But he can draw it out longer, that's not too difficult. 

"I'm not that interesting unfortunately. I grew up near Winnipeg, Canada and decided I wanted to be an FBI agent. So I moved to America and went through training and here I am today." Kenny shrugs and smiles, "what about you? What was your life like?"   
  
"Well I grew up in a pretty big family in Southern California, got closer to Matt as we grew up and decided I wanted to go into business with him after tagging along on one contract. Haven't looked back, and well, here I am." 

Kenny nods and finishes his food, Nick eating the last of his pasta around the same time. "Hey Kenny, want to take a walk after we're done here? There's a mountain I've been wanting to check out but Matt didn't want to come with me. If not that's okay, I can go alone, but I've been having a good time tonight. I don't want it to end." 

A blush and nod, "yeah, that sounds great Nick. I'd love to go with you." He smiles as Nick pays for their food, ignoring the protests from Kenny as they get up. Nick holds out his arm and smiles, kissing Kenny lightly on the cheek as he takes him to a taxi. 

"Rattlesnake Mountain please," Nick tells the driver and they start moving, "don't worry, it's not as scary as it sounds. I don't really know why it's called Rattlesnake Mountain, but from what I've seen it's really beautiful there. Just don't trip too much."   
  
Kenny nods and leans against Nick who wraps his arms around him, the blond melting into the other man. It had been too long since he was held like this, comfortable and safe. Relaxing so much he doesn't notice Nick texting something or the slightly maniacal glint in his eyes as they near the mountain. 

Nick pulls Kenny out of the taxi with a smile, linking their arms together as they start hiking. Kenny smiles and looks around, leaning against Nick more as they walk, oblivious to the other shadow following them through the trees a hundred or so yards behind. 

"It's beautiful out here," Kenny whispers, admiring the trees and the faint hints of a sunset peering over the horizon. It's been a long time since he was in nature like this, not since he was a teenager back home. But he's determined to do it more now, reminded of how nice it is.

"Not as beautiful as you though," Nick mumbles and kisses Kenny's cheek again, laughing softly at the faint blush he earns. They walk in silence for a while more, Kenny content in Nick's arms and Nick anticipating the summit of the mountain. 

"I loved spending time with you tonight Kenny, usually I'm not a fan of things like this but you're an exception." Nick mumbles as they near the summit, Kenny a bit confused but not thinking much of it. "The sunset just makes everything more beautiful."

"I really liked this too Nick, if our schedules ever align again we'll have to make a point of doing this." Kenny knows they're both busy and traveling everywhere, neither in one place for long. But he knows it's worth spending a few days more in one place or making another long flight if it means he can have this again.

Nick nods absentmindedly as they get to the top, subtly walking Kenny towards the edge before pulling back, every trace of caring and loving Nick gone. In its place Nick Jackson, one half of the bucks. The other half not far behind, melting out of the shadows, a wolf stalking its prey.

Kenny doesn't know what's going on at first, not until he sees Matt. And the pure evil in both of their eyes, then the glint of a knife reflecting in the sunset. His face pales, heart beating out of his chest as his breathing shortens. It can't be, there's no way. Nick, his Nick, he never knew him at all. 

It's a slap in the face, he was used. His soul feels dirty, sinking stone in his chest as he realizes Adam was right. Adam was right all along, he never trusted them to begin with. Kenny should've listened to him. Trusted him, after all he was his partner. And Kenny should have trusted him more. All he can hope for now is Adam avenges him, knows what to do when Kenny doesn't come back, puts the rest of the puzzle together.

"No…" A breathless plea slips from his mouth before he can stop himself, stuck between the certain death of the two brothers and the certain death of the cliff's edge. If only he listened to Adam. At this point he just wants it to be quick. He hopes they're not the type of killer to torture, the ashes not telling them enough to know the true nature of the victims deaths. 

Nick shrugs and swings his knife around, slowly walking closer until Kenny's at the cliff edge, Matt beside him as they stand a yard or less from the blond. "I would say sorry, but I'm really not." He laughs and leans against Matt who smirks, trying to decide the best place to start with Kenny.

"Hey Matt, remember when we braided the guys finger ligaments? I kinda want one of my own." Nick thinks aloud, looking at Kenny's hands as the man pales more, stomach churning. Kenny didn't know what he was getting into, and now he knows it's worse than he could've imagined.

"That's a great idea Nick, we should do that. Let's get you one of your own." Nick grins devilishly, stepping closer to Kenny who trembles, fighting to keep himself upright. Suddenly he reaches out and pulls Kenny back from the cliff, back into his arms while Matt puts his knife to Kenny's fingers. 

But while they were distracted neither noticed the other shadow creeping up behind them. It's not a mistake someone as skilled as the bucks usually makes, but Kenny isn't their usual target. Merely a plaything for them as they went through contracts. 

The click of a safety makes Matt whirl around, holding out his knife towards the mystery man. "Drop the knife and let him go." Kenny almost melts in relief, he knows that voice. Knows it better than himself most days. There might be a bit of hope.

From the shadows a blond cowboy steps out, gun trained on Nick who presses the cold of his blade to Kenny's throat. "I said drop the knife and let him go Nick." Adam knew he shouldn't have followed them, that it was wrong to intrude on Kenny after they broke up. But he couldn't' stop the feeling in his gut something was wrong, and he's more relieved than ever he listened.

"Fine." Nick rolls his eyes and shoves Kenny towards Adam, letting Matt lunge towards the two and tackle them to the ground. Nick not too far behind, knife in hand as he tries to slice both of the agents. Not anything pretty nor painful, just enough to get the job done. Because he knows how dangerous they can be. 

But the agents' training kicks in and they fight the brothers back to the cliff's edge, knives knocked out of hands and discarded on the rock. Matt growls as he steps in front of Nick, ready to protect him with his life if necessary. He realizes how dire it is, how outmatched they are. But if he can get Nick out it'll be worth it if he dies. It's his fault Nick's in this, and it's not going to be his fault he dies first. 

Neither expect what comes next. Adam steps forward and shoves, his strength enough to knock Matt off balance and back into Nick. Physics takes over from there, the bucks barely with enough time to stare in shock before gravity pulls them over the edge of the cliff. Screams torn away from the wind, they fall wrapped around each other, frantically reaching for the cliff edge further and further away.

Up on the cliff Kenny collapses into Adam's chest, sobs wracking his body as apologies spill from his mouth. Adam holds him close, comforting mumbles piercing the sobs as he walks to the edge, staring down below. But neither see the bodys they expected, nor the blood. The bucks are gone, as if they never existed. 

The sun disappears behind the hills as the agents sit, laying next to each other as the stars peek through from the dark. 


End file.
